On holiday 🙂 Having fun. Spending Bonus.

Digital camera has arrived 🙂 And excellent it is too 🙂

Spent the first bit of our bonus today, on a digital camera, plus 16mb smartmedia card 🙂 Can’t wait for it to arrive.

Well, I guess I should be in bed, sleeping, getting ready for work, but work’s annoying at the moment, so there’s no urgency. One good thing about work is that we did get a bonus this year, about a month’s pay, which means with any luck we’ll be buying a car soon! I’m trying not to think about the running costs, and just about how happy it’ll make Grete and how much easier it’ll make life.

Just watched Matrix with our mate Andy – if sci-fi / cyberpunk / action is your thing, then go and see it, if not go and see it anyway. It’s excellent, not much of a plot to be honest, but the movie is just so cool.

That song (Sunscreen) has been going around my head, so I’ve composed a Gathering – Vipers version, which is here … probably not funny but I laughed.

Really, go and see Matrix – I’m not kidding. Hopefully it won’t get buried under the Star Wars hype.

Anyway, sleep comes to those who wait.

If I could offer one bit of advice, it would be ‘don’t work for large coporations, they will only make you feel frustrated’.

Well, things are a little quieter, and a lot has happened over the past few weeks. Company was brilliant – let me take a few days off, and work from home for a few days while Grete was really bad, which helped. She’s feeling much better, although still suffering, but at least she can think again and function, and get the help she needs.

*fx : Another Rant

When you are ill, and suffering, you are most likely not in much of a position to force your opinion or to ask lots of questions, and yet, ‘professionals’ appear to avoid providing any useful information or taking the time to ask the right questions. Friends got us through the last bad patch, friends in Nottingham and friends on IRC. When someone you’ve never met before asks questions a doctor never bothered to, you know the world is a scary and worrying place.

*fx : Rant off

The house still looks like a bombsite, but Grete is getting it sorted (I’m too lazy/knackered). Had some excellent weekends and evenings with friends here in Nottingham, which make the whole moving thing that much easier.

Bought CIV : CTP – waste of money.

Spend most of my time worrying about the things I should get sorted, like the garden, and bills, and payment schemes, and then spend the evening messing about, or eating too much take-away food, or on-line. Is everyone like this? All other folk seem to have organised lives where things work as they expect.

Grete’s not very happy – the move has hit her quite badly, and the last few days have been stressful for everyone. She’ll be better again soon – especially due to the kindness of our friends.

We’re back! Diamond Cable have done their thing 🙂

(I can’t remember when I wrote this, I’m guessing some time in 1999)

Well, obviously and most importantly, there’s Grete. Without her I would be lost. She is my soul mate, my other half, and a wonderful wife. She also has her own webpage, which you are now obliged to visit 😉 Leave a guestbook entry, she likes guestbook entries!

I’m lazy when it comes to friends. I take them for granted, I rarely keep in touch if long distances are involved, I often say things which I shouldn’t and sometimes things which no one should say.

For some reason, some people still put up with me, for which I’ll be eternally grateful, without my friends I’d be a self-centred old boar. My friends keep me on the straight and narrow.

I wouldn’t say I have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have provide quality enough to fill the friendship role a thousand times over. Some of these people are listed below, not all of them mind, so don’t worry if you’re not there 😉 Thanks,

• Simes

  For acts above and beyond the call of duty. For having a bigger appetite than me. For many things, but mainly for being Simes.

• Chris & Christine & Andy

  For reminding us that getting pissed in front of the TV, with friends, is just as enjoyable as ever. For roleplaying, for curry, for wargaming, and a whole host of other stuff.

• Mark

  For showing me Ireland, for keeping in touch after university when I was being lazy and for keeping me sane at 64 Carterknowle Road.

• Shorty

  A list too long to count. For teaching me that insomnia didn’t have to mean boredom, for saving me from myself at school, for still talking to me after that incident in Newcastle town center, and for making the effort to keep in touch when I forget.

• Ness

  For trusting me when she had no reason, for reminding me that I sometimes am a nice person, and for putting me back together after Ken McKenzie pulled me apart.

• Charles

  For teaching me about beer, and curry and having a good time, for giving me a place to live and then letting me move Grete in as well, and for a whole load of other things we did at university.

• Tony

  For saving me from GLB, and for reminding me there aren’t many hobbies better than roleplaying.

• Paul

  For never, ever, ever, letting me win at Warcraft, and for coming to two of our wedding receptions and also for having a bigger appetite than me 🙂

• Lynda

  For lots of things, but above all, for giving Grete someone to confide in.

• Steve

  For letting me win a few games of pool every now and then, and for getting me out of the Royal Bengal without too much of a problem.

Well, first day back at work, went ok – lots to do and get ready for. Working late tomorrow putting in some anti-virus software for Notes. Not sure what I expected, and not sure if it lived up to expectation.

Hopefully we’ll be back on-line some time tomorrow when Diamond Cable get us installed, although they’ve not done a pre-installation interview/check type thing, which worries me, hopefully they won’t do that tomorrow and tell us it’ll be a week before we get on-line.

Well, we’re in. The computers are finally setup in the back bedroom, much nicer layout than the last place. You can see how it’s all configure here [grin].

Moving was a complete nightmare as usual. Van hire place were great, van was excellent, John German were annoying (it turns out that our Landlady wanted to move back in over the weekend, not the Friday, but John German said Friday or Tuesday, not the weekend, which of course made it much harder for everyone concerned).

Christine, Chris and Andy were a godsend. We’d never have managed it without them, we can’t thank them enough. The new place is nice, different from the flat, obviously, and it’s messy with everything still lying on the floor and stuff, but we’ll get used to it. We’re close to town which is nice. Can’t upload this tonight, since we’re not back on-line until Wednesday at the earliest – waiting for Diamond Cable to connect us. Back to work on Tuesday, my Bell’s Palsy has almost totally gone, the left side of may face still isn’t as strong as it was, but everything works again as it should!